The Unexpected
by to-the-fireflies
Summary: Lucas had never noticed a girl's elbow until Maya Hart sat in front of him, and Maya just hadn't noticed very much at all. Lucaya, Friarkle.
1. Girl Meets Distraction

**AN:** Hey all! My first GMW fanfiction. I was a big lover of BMW and this show is slowly starting to capture my heart. I've been hung up on this for a little while—unfortunately the second half of this chapter (the bay window scene) was lost and this rewrite doesn't have quite the same magic. Stupid glitches.

Set the Monday after Girl Meets Semiformal—may absorb some of Girl Meets Creativity as we go. An exercise in staying close to the characters while playing with a slow build to Lucaya. I, of course, own nothing but my own words and situations. _**Please F &R if you would like more**_ **.** _ **I'll post a second chapter if I get a good response.**_

 **Chapter 1 – Girl Meets Distraction**

Lucas had never really noticed a girl's elbow before… then again, there was a lot he hadn't noticed before coming to New York. Like how quickly people could walk, or how high-rises made you feel when you tilted your head up towards the sky, or what gyro meat looked like before it was sliced for your sandwich. It was no wonder why he had never paid much attention to elbows when there was so much else to look at. But for some reason, he had spent the last hour of history class unable to move his eyes from the spot where her soft pink skin curved against his desk. He followed the arc of her arm to where it hid beneath her mane of gold locks. She was wearing blue again today.

He jumped, nearly from his seat, as Farkle kicked the leg of his chair. His friend shot him a look, eyebrows raised as Maya recoiled, leaning forward into her own desk.

"You see a rattlesnake, Ranger Rick?" The blonde teased, shaking off her own surprise effortlessly. The class sounded with laughter, and an exasperated Mr. Matthews stepped away from his blackboard and dropped his chalk on a stack of folders. Today, more than usual, he had been fighting to keep the attention of his class. The school halls had been buzzing all day with the news from semi-formal last Friday, and the students were far less interested in what their teacher had to say about the structure of the U.S. government than normal.

"Nah," Lucas smirked, "just thought I saw a spider crawling around in your forest of hair."

Forgetting her too-cool-for-school persona momentarily, Maya dropped her smile and ran a hand nervously over her waves before Lucas laughed, giving himself away. Out of the corner of his eyes, he spied Riley frown at him. He could have sworn it was the first time she had even looked at him that day.

"Since you're so attentive today, Mr. Friar, maybe you can tell me the answer?" Mr. Matthews asked good-naturedly. Lucas' blue eyes momentarily travelled to the chalk behind his teacher, searching the board for any implication as to what the question might have been.

"I'm not sure, sir," Lucas answered, coming up empty.

Farkle was quick to raise his hand. "The constitution ensured balance by granting the President the power to veto," he said matter-of-factly. Internally, Lucas groaned. He could kick himself for missing such an easy answer just because he hadn't even heard the question. What had gotten into him today? History was one of his favorite classes.

"Right again, Farkle, my boy," Mr. Matthews grinned, rubbing his hands together to remove any residual chalk dust. "Which brings us to your next assignment. I'd like you all to write three standard sized pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman, _size 12_ ," he paused, letting his eyes meet Maya's before continuing, "Well, you know the drill… pick any bill that was passed by congress that _you_ would personally veto. Describe it to me, explain your reasoning. This paper is about what you think. Any questions?"

"Can it be a bill that was vetoed? Does it have to be current or could we go back to the very first presidential veto? What even was the first veto?" Riley questioned, not even bothering to raise her hand. She was always full of questions.

"Just pick something you are passionate about—something that you have enough thoughts to organize into three pages. As for your last question," Riley's father glanced at the clock on the side of the classroom wall, "that you can look up on your own tonight. Chapter 13, pages 42-66."

The bell rang, drowning out the chorus of groans following the announcement of their reading assignment. Still beating himself up about missing such an easy question, Lucas collected his books slowly. Mondays were always horrendously long.

"Twenty-four pages?" Maya complained, "Is your dad trying to kill us, Riles?" Pouting, the blonde stomped her foot for dramatic effect as she and the brunette slipped into the hall on their way to grab their book-bags.

"See you tomorrow," Riley said over her shoulder at the boys, who quickly found themselves the last two in the classroom.

"What's gotten into you, Lucas?" Farkle asked, his brow furrowed. "You know what a presidential veto is… not to mention you spent the last hour staring so hard at the back of Maya's head I half expected her to catch fire. Did she say something?"

"Aside from her usual niceties, you mean? Not really."

"I see… well, then what is it?"

"I dunno," Lucas said, because honestly he didn't. "I'm probably just tired."

"Okay…" Farkle replied skeptically, deciding not to push the issue. "You want to head to the library and finish this reading together? I want to pick out my bill early so I can claim my territory tomorrow in class."

"Sounds good," Lucas agreed, following his friend to their lockers. He still hadn't gotten the chance to check in with Riley about everything that happened on Friday with Charlie, and he had a feeling that he wasn't going to be able to stop thinking about what all this meant until they sat down and talked about it. Until then, Farkle was a welcome distraction.

* * *

"Maya, what am I going to do? What am I going to say? Today was so awkward. It was like, simultaneously the most awkward and horrible day all at once! What am I going to do about Lucas?" Riley exclaimed, pulling her knees close to her chest as she rocked herself on the cushions of her bay window. Today was the first day Riley and Lucas had even seen each other since her unexpected appearance at semi-formal, and it had gone just about as uncomfortably as everyone expected.

Surprisingly, it had been two days since the girls last discussed the Lucas situation. In fact, Riley had spent the majority of the weekend dissecting the boy that was Charlie Gardner. It was Maya who had found their southern friend occupying her thoughts. He had seemed so unfazed watching Riley dance with another boy. While Maya was no expert at relationships, she knew better than to think that was normal—whether the thing Lucas and Riley had was official or unofficial or whatever else.

"I thought we were finally done stinking up the bay window with cow manure and rodeo smell talking about Huckleberry?" Maya groaned, tossing her head back. The blonde's first instinct when a friend came to her with a problem was to crack a joke. She'd always been rather proud of her knack for cheering people up. But fixing things? That was Riley's department.

Bypassing her friend's smart-mouthed quip, Riley jumped to her feet—too anxious to sit still: "I need to figure out where the two of us stand. I need to know what I'm feeling, and I need to know what I'm going to say to him. It's only going to be a matter of time before he asks me about Friday night. Or Charlie asks me… or my parents ask me… you never prepared me for two boys, Maya! I'm not even properly equipped for one!"

"I don't know how I'm supposed to help," Maya frowned. "You were so much easier when the only guy chasing after you was Farkle."

"I'm being serious, Maya. I need your advice before my brain explodes. If I don't figure this out soon then I just know that I'm going to go crazy, and then no guy will ever like me, or ask me to semiformal, and I won't ever become anything, and I'll end up living in a house full of cats. And not a house full of cats in the good way!"

"There's a good way to live in a house full of cats?"

"Maya Penelope Hart, you tell me how to feel right now!" Riley demanded, shaking her friend by her shoulders. The shorter girl quickly escaped her grasp, and sat her friend back down on the windowsill.

"How on earth am I supposed to tell you how to feel when I hardly ever admit my own feelings to myself?" Maya asked, staring Riley straight in the eye. The brunette opened her mouth as if to say something, before second-guessing herself and closing it. "You're the one who's good at fixing things," Maya continued. "You know what to do."

"But I know you figured something out about me when we all went through our identity crises… you have to tell me," Riley insisted, narrowing her eyes at Maya in an attempt to scare her into obedience. Instead, it looked as though the light coming in through the window might have been a bit too harsh.

"That's exactly it, Riles, I was only pretending to be you. Anything that I learned during my stint as a Matthews, _you_ already know, somewhere deep, deep in that hummingbird heart," she said, gently poking her friend's chest with her index finger.

"You're my best friend. I need your advice."

"Fine then: my advice is to not take my advice. I break things. You fix things. Don't go messing with the cosmos because you're only going to regret it."

"Please, Maya, for once in your sad, horrible life of emotional numbness and hopelessness, will you _please_ give me some real advice?" Riley begged, faltering under the blonde's withering scowl. "No offense," she squeaked, holding her hands up to hide her face.

"OH, you have so got a problem now," Maya said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Separating her hands so that they framed either side of her face, Riley gulped. "Ring power?" She suggested.

"Not this time."

"But there's nothing that ring power can't do!" Riley whined, dropping her fists into her lap. The pair sat together in silence for a minute. Naturally, it was Riley who broke first: "Uncle Eric's friend Jack told me a story about how the two of them were both in love with the same girl, and she loved them back too… but in different ways. She loved Uncle Eric like a brother, and because of that the two of them are still friends after all this time. He said they talk everyday."

The shorter girl turned to look at her friend, who continued slowly: "I still want to be Lucas' friend in fourteen years."

"You will," Maya said confidently. "I know you, and you'll do exactly whatever it is that you need to do to keep your friends close."

"I thought that Lucas and I would be together forever. Maybe it was silly, but when we first met… when you," Riley blushed, "shoved me into his arms, it was like seeing everything through a chrome filter and I just thought: 'we could be like my mom and dad'. You know, best friends married to our first kiss… but I guess all this time that I spent hoping for us to be Cory and Topanga, I didn't realize that we were really more like Cory and Shawn—"

"Hey!" Maya interjected. "I thought _I_ was the Shawn to your Cory! I didn't sign up to be your Minkus, or even worse, your Angela—"

"Of course you are. You know that… I just meant, maybe deep, deep in my 'hummingbird' heart I knew that we were better off as friends. Maybe the back of my notebook was right," Riley tucked her head into the nook of her friend's neck. "You broke character when you were talking to Lucas, what did you learn about me?"

It wasn't fair for Riley to play like that… resisting the head tuck was as bad as denying the power of the bay window. Maya stroked the soft brown hair by her friend's temple. "I told you, I was only pretending to be you. It was all nonsense anyways! It doesn't mean anything if I felt brotherly love towards Huckleberry when I was acting as you. Because I _wasn't_ you, Riley; I was just Maya in a brown wig."

"But it felt different than how you normally feel about Lucas? Not like you were _in love_ with him. But like you loved him as a brother?" Riley asked, barely waiting for Maya's reply. She had gotten her answer and everything was starting to take shape in her mind.

"Yeah… I guess," Maya said uncertainly.

"Maybe that's how we'll stay friends… because we care about each other, we love each other, we're just not _in love_ with each other. I think I've known since our date, since we kissed, but I just hadn't realized…"

"I don't think I'm the one who needs to be hearing this," Maya said, inching forward to kiss Riley on her forehead before turning to climb out the window. "You know what to do."

It was getting dark, and Maya knew that Gammy would have been expecting her back at their apartment ten minutes ago.

"I'll talk to him tomorrow. I really will," Riley promised, her words following Maya on her climb down toward the street. The path to the subway from the Matthews' place was familiar and she found her feet carrying her there instinctively as her mind echoed with Riley's voice:

 _But it felt different than how you normally feel about Lucas._

Thanks!

Please review if you want to see a second chapter

Hero


	2. Girl Meets Time to Talk

_Set the Tuesday after Girl Meets Semiformal—may absorb some of Girl Meets Creativity as we go._

 _I own nothing but my own words and situations._

 **Chapter 2 – Girl Meets Time to Talk**

Riley fiddled with the hem of her fourteenth skirt that morning. Who knew it was so hard to pick out a "breaking bad news" outfit. Clothing that she had haphazardly thrown from her body now covered every surface of her bedroom. She couldn't remember having ever felt so tormented in her life. This was even worse than when Charlie had asked her to the dance… she had promised Maya that she would talk to Lucas, and she knew that she had to keep that promise. Lucas deserved the truth.

She had spent half the night rehearsing what she planned to say to Lucas, but nothing sounded right and eventually she had fallen asleep. Now she was entirely unprepared. Riley scrutinized her reflection: mismatched, colorful, and empty-handed.

"Hun? If you don't come eat breakfast soon, you'll be late for school, " her mother's voice called, just before she opened the door to Riley's room. She froze in the doorway, her face steely. Riley knew what it meant when her mom got that look on her face, and it was _never_ good: "When was the hurricane?"

Riley squeaked, running at her mother and wrapping her hands around her mom's neck: "Mommy!"

It was hard for Topanga to stay angry with her daughter clinging on to her. She hesitated a moment, telling herself to remember this moment three years from now when Riley was certain to be embarrassed by the mere idea of hugging her mother.

"I need help. Serious help. What are you supposed to wear when you need to tell a boy we're just friends?" Riley asked. Her voice buried in the skin of her mom's neck.

Laughing gently, Topanga pulled away, guiding her daughter over to the bay window and sitting her down. "It doesn't matter what you wear, honey, what matters is that you're kind and honest. That boy cares about you… even if you're an absolute tornado. How could you have possibly made such a mess this early in the morning? I only woke you up an hour ago—"

"I care about him too, Mom. That's why what I'm wearing _does_ matter. I can't look too good, or I'll just depress him. I can't look too cheerful, because that will only make him feel worse. But I can't look too upset, or everyone at school will think I'm heartbroken, and I can't look too ugly because then everyone at school will think I'm weird and they'll wonder why Lucas ever liked me in the first place!" Riley exploded, jumping to her feet. As she spoke, she dashed towards different articles of clothing scattered around her room, but ultimately wrote them all off once again.

"It sure is chaos underneath that pretty hair," Topanga half-smiled, running a hand over her daughter's chocolate locks. Remarkably, she found herself a bit at a loss for a solution: "Just wear something you feel comfortable in."

"You're no help at all!" Riley exclaimed exasperatedly, collapsing onto her bed only to be swallowed up by mountains of her clothes.

It was just then that Maya let herself into the Matthew's apartment, and bounded in the direction of her friend's room upon noticing her absence at the dining table. "Morning sunshine! You ready for another day of endless droning as our teachers slowly beat us into boxes? Whoa-ho-ho…" the blonde trailed off as soon as she got a look at the total madness that was Riley's bedroom.

"Maya!" Riley cheered, sitting up straight with a hopeful grin on her face. Shirts and dresses tumbled off of her and landed beside her on the bed.

"She's all yours," Topanga smiled, slipping out of the room quickly. Just a second later, she popped her head back in: "Oh, and you're coming home straight after school to clean all this up. And now, I've got to get to work."

Maya grabbed onto Riley's hands, helping her up: "So, what's going on, cupcake?"

* * *

Maya did a double take. He sure didn't look like her Farkle, but everything else was the same. She didn't dare say anything more after he laid down the law at Topanga's, and she had to admit that she was starting to think he might be better this way.

Her friend sat across from her at their usual lunch table, practically vibrating with excitement. "You sure look happy," she remarked, swallowing a spoon full of red jello. He'd been so smiley all day that he could've been confused with Riley.

"I am happy," Farkle agreed. "Today is an amazing day."

Raising an eyebrow, Maya cast a cynical look over the cafeteria: "No, Farkle, today is meatloaf day. There is absolutely nothing amazing about today."

"Maya, Maya, Maya, you know that I find your usual gloominess mysteriously enticing but today," he paused, standing up and leaning across the table before yelling in her face: "you're just bringing me down! You big blonde rain cloud!"

In response, Maya narrowed her eyes at him, sending him back into his seat with a loud gulp. His hasty retreat brought a smile to her face as she scraped the bottom of her jello cup, her meatloaf untouched on her lunch tray. The pair sat in an easy silence for a moment; without Riley and Lucas their table seemed a lot quieter.

"So," Maya said, humoring him. "What exactly is it today that is _so amazing_?"

"Nothing in particular, I guess," Farkle answered, but the blonde knew he was playing it cool. "Just feels like it's a good day. I'm glad Riley is talking to Lucas. I think this will be good for them."

"Good for them?" She repeated incredulously. "We're going to find Riley in a puddle of guilt, and Huckleberry's going to build a raft so he can sail back to Texas on the Hudson."

"The Hudson feeds into the Atlantic Ocean."

"Fine, then he'll ride off into the sunset on the back of his trusty sheep."

"I don't know, Lucas is a pretty tough guy. I think you might be surprised," Farkle said knowingly before taking a sip from his carton of milk.

"Losing Riley is like losing a tooth. Sure you can still eat because you've got plenty of other teeth, but your tongue will always go back to that empty place. And when you smile you'll look like a redneck."

"He's not losing Riley. They're just redefining—"

"Who's not losing Riley?" Zay interrupted, sliding down on the bench beside Maya, so close to her that their shoulders touched. He drummed his hands on the surface of the table expectantly as he looked back and forth between her and Farkle.

Rolling her eyes, Maya moved over, "Riley is breaking up with Lucas."

"Right now?" Zay asked with wide eyes, "Well, that just doesn't make any sense. I mean, come _on_ , have you seen the front of her notebook? It's got more graffiti on it than a subway wall. Unlessssss, she finally realized that Lucas—oww!" Zay cut himself off, glaring across the table: "What gives, little dude?"

"It's not breaking up when they aren't even together," Farkle observed just as the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch period. ""Let's get to history," Farkle encouraged, his smile returning, "I've got to make sure nobody else picked the same bill as me."

The three made their way to class, all eager to hear about what their friends had discussed during lunch. Maya trailed just behind the boys, stopping at her locker outside Mr. Matthew's classroom to collect her things for the rest of the day. By the time she made her way through the door, the second bell rang and all of her classmates were seated at their desks. All except one.

"Where's Sundance?" Maya asked Riley, who was sat at her desk doodling on a new notebook. Casting a backwards glance at Lucas' desk, the brunette shrugged, seeming to not have yet even noticed his absence.

"Take a seat, Ms. Hart," Mr. Matthews directed her impatiently, pointing to her usual spot. Confused, she sat down without a word as Riley's father began his lesson.

* * *

Ms. Kossal had left Maya to her own devices following the final bell of the day. It wasn't unusual for Maya to spend a little extra time after school in the studio on Tuesdays, especially when her art teacher had just given the class a new assignment. Maya didn't like to leave things unfinished.

Finally satisfied with where she was walking away from her painting—an exercise in recreating reflections on the waters surface—Maya began to collect her paints and wash her brushes. She peered at the clock above the doorway, but quickly took a second look once she realized how late she had actually stayed. Ms. Kossal was a generous woman but that didn't mean Maya wouldn't get in trouble if she got caught in the studio this late after class.

Swinging her backpack over her right shoulder, she quickly exited the room and decided she would just have to skip running to her locker. Her lips moved as she mouthed the lyrics to the last song she'd heard on the radio absentmindedly. Only a few steps away from the art classroom she collided with something and her carelessly closed pack flew out of her arms, scattering the papers of her notebook on the tile of the hallway.

Already prepared with a snarky remark, Maya glanced up to find that the wall she had walked in to was no other than Lucas Friar. The very same Lucas who had been missing since lunch.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. Like the gentleman she knew him to be, he immediately bent down to help her gather her things.

"I could ask you the same thing," he replied solemnly. The sound of his voice troublingly monotonous. As his hands ran across her most recent sketches, Maya fought the urge to tear her drawings from his hands. She had always been rather protective of her art. Half-smiling at a portrait she had made of Riley, he gathered his bearings: "Right. I forgot last class today was art. You just couldn't leave your canvas, could you?"

Once the last of her work was tucked away into her backpack—this time fully zipped and buckled—the pair stood up from the floor.

"Where were you all afternoon?" Maya asked him. Lucas the Good didn't skip class—that was kind of her thing. Sheparding down the hall with a single gesture, Lucas and Maya started on their way out of the school.

"I was in the gym," Lucas explained as they walked. "Coach said he'd talk to our teachers because I—"

"Wasn't ready to see Riley?" Maya prompted. The sun was still high, reflecting off the glass windows of the skyscrapers that bordered their walk to the subway.

Lucas met Maya's stare momentarily, before turning his dark blue eyes to the ground: "It wasn't so much Riley as it was everyone else. Everybody knows by now, I guess?"

"Not everyone," She said. She watched him carefully as he watched the pavement change beneath their feet. She could tell from his profile that his jaw was tightly clenched. When it came to Lucas, she wasn't usually one to back off, but something about today felt different. She didn't even have the urge to call him Ranger Rick or to grab his hands and square dance down the block. This wasn't the right time for their game.

He looked up at her, perhaps drawn by the weight of her gaze on his face, or perhaps surprised by her fairly comforting words.

"I think it's for the best. Riley's amazing… but you know that," he corrected. Maya tightened her grip on the shoulder straps to her backpack. What was happening? She wasn't supposed to be the person Lucas Friar opened up to. "But… it's just that… if she was really _the_ girl then I probably would have planned something to put Charlie's semi-formal ask to shame. I probably would have asked her out on our first date before you tricked me into doing it…"

"Fancy yourself a romantic, cowboy?" Maya teased. Perhaps old habits die hard.

He chuckled, an amazing sound. A liberating sound. She relaxed a little, letting her hands slip from their grip on her straps as the pair descended the stairs into the subway.

"I probably would have been a little more worried about seeing Riley and a little less worried about seeing you," Lucas added, as he swiped his metro card at the turnstile. They were only a few feet from where they'd head in opposite directions: an uptown boy and a downtown girl.

"Me?" Maya questioned, though the noise of a train reverberating below their feet reminded her that she was going to have to hurry if she planned on catching this train.

Lucas shrugged, backing away from her, "Your Riley's best friend. I figured she wouldn't let our relationship change much, but I mean, now that I'm not her boyfriend what's going to hold you back from telling me how you really feel?"

Maya opened her mouth to respond, but the words didn't seem to come fast enough and Lucas tipped an imaginary hat at her before waving goodbye and heading off in the direction of his line.

What had he meant 'how she really felt'? Did he think that just because her best friend had called it quits that they were no longer friends? Did he think…?

No. He couldn't. That just wouldn't make any sense at all.

AN: Thanks to everyone for your reviews, follows, favorites, and more! I so so so appreciate it and love hearing what you guys have to say.

 _ **Please F &R if you would like more**_ **.** _ **I'll post another chapter if I get a good response.**_

I hope you guys don't mind that I'm taking things slow. AND I hope you enjoyed Topanga's and Zay's appearances :)

Best,

Hero


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